NSA

SAN FRANCISCO--The director of the National Security Agency on Tuesday downplayed reports of the NSA's attempt to wrest control of cybersecurity responsibilities from rival federal agencies.

"We do not want to run cybersecurity for the U.S. government," Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander said at the RSA security conference here.

Instead, Alexander said, the Department of Homeland Security should continue to oversee Internet and computer security for civilian agencies, while the NSA would provide that service for military agencies.

Alexander's remarks come during a 60-day review of the federal government's cybersecurity efforts ordered by President Obama … Read more

The U.S. Senate is investigating allegations by two National Security Agency whistleblowers who have described widespread monitoring of innocuous telephone conversations by the Bush administration's clandestine program.

The reports fill in some details about how the NSA's program works in practice. The two whistleblowers, Adrienne Kinne and David Murfee Faulk, are former military linguists who worked for a secretive NSA operation they say routinely intercepted phone calls of U.S. military officers, American journalists, American aid workers, and others who were calling home from abroad.

The two ex-military employees came forward independently and spoke to ABC News … Read more

In one of the biggest testaments yet of open source's security credentials, and of its ability to deliver security at lower cost, the US National Security Agency (NSA) has turned to open source to create part of the Tokeneer System. The Tokeneer System is a biometric security software system, but that isn't why it's significant.

No, open sourcing part of the Tokeneer System is significant because it "shows that highly dependable software can be developed cost-effectively," as noted by Martyn Thomas of Oxford University. The same or better security than proprietary approaches...for much less.… Read more

If I had to describe Zyxel's NSA-220 NAS server in a few words, I'd say it's like Synology's DS107+--minus the intimidating amount of features and plus RAID functionality.

The Sinology DS107+, at the time of reviewing, had by far the most features and the most robust, easy-to-use Web-based management. The NSA-220, on the other hand, offers fewer features, while it does come with a similarly impressive and intuitive Web interface. I tried it out briefly and was very happy with it. From creating RAID configurations and user accounts to setting up shared folders, I didn'… Read more

The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Bush administration on behalf of AT&T customers to halt what it called the "massively illegal" warrantless surveillance of Americans' Internet and telephone communications.

In addition to suing the National Security Agency, the nonprofit Internet advocacy group also names President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney's chief of staff David Addington, and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, as well as others.

"For years, the NSA has been engaged in a massive and massively illegal fishing expedition through AT&T's domestic networks and … Read more

A United Nations agency is quietly drafting technical standards, proposed by the Chinese government, to define methods of tracing the original source of Internet communications and potentially curbing the ability of users to remain anonymous.

The U.S. National Security Agency is also participating in the "IP Traceback" drafting group, named Q6/17, which is meeting next week in Geneva to work on the traceback proposal. Members of Q6/17 have declined to release key documents, and meetings are closed to the public.

The potential for eroding Internet users' right to remain anonymous, which is protected by law … Read more

If you thought that the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping was limited to AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, think again.

While these household names of the telecom industry almost certainly helped the government to illegally snoop on their customers, statements by a number of legal experts suggest that collaboration with the NSA may run far deeper into the wireless phone industry. With over 3,000 wireless companies operating in the United States, the majority of industry-aided snooping likely occurs under the radar, with the dirty-work being handled by companies that most consumers have never heard of.

A recent … Read more

Sen. Barack Obama is taking heat from liberal supporters for changing his position on granting phone companies involved in President Bush's domestic spying program retroactive immunity for breaking federal laws.

According to a New York Times article published Wednesday, more than 7,000 Obama supporters have organized on Obama's own campaign Web site to protest his recent move to support legislation that will grant legal immunity to phone companies involved in the National Security Agency's domestic wiretapping program after the September 11 attacks.

Previously, Obama opposed any immunity for the telecom companies. In February, Obama voted on a Senate bill against retroactive immunity. … Read more

A series of statements about immunizing telecommunications companies that violated federal wiretapping laws have become something of an embarrassment, and perhaps even a problem, for John McCain's presidential campaign.

The statements revolve around whether McCain, like President Bush, supports legislation that could be voted on this month extending retroactive immunity to those companies and perhaps many more. The problem for the onetime captain of the Straight Talk Express is that his varying statements at different times are starting to seem -- dare we say it? -- almost Clintonian.

When news about the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program … Read more